Are you interested in how people create the world around them? Do you want to conduct three-month ethnographic research on a socially relevant topic of your own choice? Then choose one of our three unique specialisations! Either design your own Global Ethnography project, work as a research intern with a Policy in Practice project, or set up a Visual Ethnography project and translate your research findings into a documentary.
Three Unique Specialisations
•Global Ethnography provides its students with the opportunity to develop and conduct an individual research project;
•Sociology of Policy in Practice teaches its students to think with organisations to help them respond to the challenges they are facing in our quickly changing world;
•Visual Ethnography offers its students expanded training in how to use audio-visual methods for producing contemporary anthropological research.
Develop a Personal Research Project
Do you want to engage with or connect to a specific group of people, in a dedicated social context? Do you want to explore questions of general relevance to society? The master’s programme in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology teaches students how to do research on a topic of their own choice. The range of topics which the institute’s staff members can tutor is almost endless, as long as legal and practical conditions of health and safety are respected. In the recent past, students have worked on topics as diverse as the fate of LGBT refugees, initiatives to encourage sustainable global tourism, water management in African gold mines, the digitalisation of heritage in the Netherlands, kickboxing Muslimas, storytelling in the Caribbean, etc., etc....
Theory and Practice
A student’s individual master’s research project is guided by dedicated courses, while intensive coaching is received from an individual supervisor. To help students decide on and gain access to dedicated field sites, this programme provides access to the extensive research networks maintained by the institute’s staff members. Where and how we can do ethnographic fieldwork depends on the kind of access we can gain. The CADS staff actively encourages and supports students to make use of the technical means available to conduct both ‘ethnography at a distance’ (making video calls and so on), as well as ‘digital ethnography’ (doing research on and in online environments). The CADS master’s programme also offers the opportunity to join staff members on their own research topics. Through the course’s combined course-based tuition and individual ethnographic research project, students learn how to gain access to, participate in, understand and report on how people experience and create their life-worlds. Students of this programme acquire state-of-the-art knowledge along with the skills to study both the main challenges of our times as they are manifested in ‘local’ contexts. Their ethnographic fieldwork familiarizes the students of this programme with a broad range of social scientific methods, which allows them to collect diverse and complementary data. This unique combination of knowledge and skills can be applied in a future professional career in a large variety of contexts, both in and outside academia, as it provides the critical traction required to meet the unexpected challenges facing our interconnected and globalising world.
Methodology in Practice (MiP)
The programme offers a one-week hands-on course of methodological training, as part of the ‘Research Design’ course. The week provides practical exercises aimed at identifying the challenges faced by individual students in relation to their individual research project.
Career Preparation
Throughout the master’s programme both academic and transferable skills are developed: critical and analytical reading, thinking and writing; verbal, written and audio-visual communication; giving and receiving feedback; teamwork and working independently as well as time-management. During fieldwork, practical research experience is gained and training is provided in skills such as interviewing, observing, intercultural awareness and communication, networking, rapport-building, problem-solving, self-reflection and budgeting.
Besides the coursework, the institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology and Study Association Itiwana organise ‘get-togethers’ with alumni, and excursions to relevant organisations.
To fully support CADS students in entering the labour market, the FSW Career Service offers career advice, workshops, and CV and cover letter checks.
Coördinator career preparation programme CADS: yet to be announched